Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Region and its Opportunities in Tourism and Excursion Activities (Case of Chernivtsi Region, Ukraine)

Abstract

Chernivtsi region in Ukraine is a unique territory where the historical and cultural heritage of different time periods is represented: from Old Russian, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian to Romanian and Ukrainian. The purpose of the article is a comprehensive assessment of the historical and cultural heritage of the Chernivtsi region for a more intensive further involvement in the tourism industry in the Carpathian region, together with neighboring EU countries: Romania, Slovakia, Poland. For this purpose, different status, state of preservation and spatial differences were taken into account together with the resources support throughout the territory under study. The article considers the theoretical and methodological foundations for studying the historical and cultural significant sites of the region, carries out a comprehensive assessment of the historical and cultural potential of the Chernivtsi region, analyzes its legacy through three factor components of ratings: the number, concentration and location of tourist destinations (archaeological sites, monuments of architecture, history and monumental art). The result is an integral grade rating of the Chernivtsi region and its regional taxonomic units of the lowest hierarchy, which have the greatest concentration of historical and cultural tourist destinations. According to the studies of the territory the most suitable for effective and perspective use in domestic and international tourist and excursion activities, but the North Bukovyna recreational supra-region occurred to be weak promotional and organizational component of the integral touristic product.